Nielsen and Rentrak: A Tale of Two Ratings Providers

by Bonnie Rothenstein | October 29, 2015

Flat Screen TV_000006682699XLargeNielsen has been measuring television audience viewership since 1950. While its methodology has changed in many ways, the company has been the leader in the business ever since.

Since Nielsen’s introduction, other services have come and gone. The newest player in the market is Rentrak. This service combines viewing from cable boxes with third-party consumer behavior information from sources like Simmons, Epsilon, and Experian to dive deeper into the lifestyles and purchasing habits of viewers.

About the New Guy in Town

Rentrak currently services stations from the biggest TV groups and agencies throughout the country. The benefit of Rentrak is most evident in smaller markets, where information is made available on a regular basis. Nielsen, on the other hand, surveys these small markets four times a year. Specific advertising categories, such as political and automotive, also benefit from Rentrak because consumer preferences are more evident than with Nielsen data.

There are still hurdles facing Rentrak at this point, since the company’s data is based on weights and models, and doesn’t come from a true representative sample like Nielsen. For example, they wouldn’t be able to target the viewers of programming within my household. They would never imagine that my 15-year-old watches Food Network and my 13-year-old watches “Law & Order: SVU.” Those are not typical programs for their age group, so viewings would be attributed to myself or my husband. How can that possibly be accurate?

Another issue facing Rentrak is that not every cable company is allowing Rentrak access to information from their box tops. So if Comcast or Time Warner are major providers in your area, their subscribers will not be represented. And since Rentrak needs cable boxes to measure viewership, antenna-only homes are not included either.

Our Philosophy

As your media team, we will continue to learn about the differences between the two measurement services. Nielsen has always been one of the media department’s largest operating expenses, so we are happy they finally have some solid competition. Since Nielsen is still considered the industry standard, we will continue to use those ratings as a negotiating tool when we discuss rates with the stations. This will help us to speak the same language when securing the best rates.

Ultimately, call volume is most important, so we rely on our tracking reports when we make our buying decisions. While ratings can help when discussing the rates with stations, program tracking is what really matters most to ensure that your phone rings.